Jagdambika Pal quits LS, Cong; feels not needed by party

Jagdambika Pal quits LS, Cong; feels not needed by party

In a setback to Congress ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Jagdambika Pal, a senior party leader and a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, today resigned from Lok Sabha as well as from the party.

Amid speculation that he was warming up to BJP, Pal said he did not feel needed by the party despite his seniority as outsiders who joined much later are holding sway. Pal, however, said he has not decided his future course of action.

"Those who came from outside (in the party) as tenants have become house owners while people like me have become tenants.. It seems that Congress does not need a person of my seniority," Pal told reporters in Lucknow hours after sumbitting his resignation from Lok Sabha to Speaker Meira Kumar as also the Congress party in New Delhi.

65-year-old Pal, an MP from Dumariyaganj, earlier in the day said that after serving in Congress for so long, he had been getting a feeling for sometime he is not being able to put forth his views and suggestions and there was a problem in communciation with the leadership.

Seeking to reject the contention that he quit Congress before Lok Sabha polls as it may be difficult for him to retain his seat on a Congress ticket, Pal said he had won three Assembly polls and a Lok Sabha election on Congress tickets in UP where the party is out of power since 1989.

"Congress did not come to power in UP since 1989 but I stayed with the party, kept defendings its policies. At the age of 65 when I am leaving Congress party, it is not because I want to get something.

"But for sometime I am feeling, which is not only my view but that of many other leaders as well that there is no longer any need for senior leaders like us in Congress," he said in New Delhi.

Without naming Rahul Gandhi, he said that he felt that "the emerging leadership of Congress perhaps does not require senior leaders like me. Senior leaders like me are not being able to communicate, not being able to give their views.

"Their suggestions are not being heard and they are not being given respect. Senior leaders are not being able to communicate with the emerging leadership. Hence, I, who was in the party from my Youth Congress days, decided to quit. What is the point in staying put if I can't command respect and can't even communicate with the leadership," Pal said.

He also mentioned that he had worked in the party from the time of late Indira Gandhi to the period of Sonia Gandhi but the "problem" had arisen now.

Pal was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for 3 days from February 21 to 23, 1998 after the BJP government was dismissed. At that time, he was leader of Loktantrik Congress which was born after it split the Congress.